I was speaking to a group of about 300 kids, ages six to eight, at a children's museum, and I brought with me a bag full of legs, similar to the kinds of things you see up here, and had them laid out on a table for the kids. And, from my experience, you know, kids are naturally curious about what they don't know, or don't understand, or is foreign to them. They only learn to be frightened of those differences when an adult influences them to behave that way, and maybe censors that natural curiosity, or you know, reins in the question-asking in the hopes of them being polite little kids. So I just pictured a first grade teacher out in the lobby with these unruly kids, saying, "Now, whatever you do, don't stare at her legs."
Razgovarala sam sa skupinom od oko 300 djece, dobi od šest do osam godina, u muzeju za djecu, i sa sobom sam donijela vreću punu nogu, sličnu onima koje vidite ovdje, i položila sam ih na stol, za djecu. I, iz mog iskustva, kao što znate, djeca su prirodno znatiželjna o onome što ne poznaju ili ne razumiju, ili im je strano. Ona samo nauče bojati se razlika kada odrasla osoba utječe na njih da se ponašaju tako, i možda sputava tu prirodnu znatiželju, ili ih zaustavlja u postavljanju pitanja u želji da budu pristojna mala djeca. Pa, samo sam zamislila učiteljicu prvog razreda vani u predvorju s tom nestašnom djecom, kako im govori, "Sad, što god činili, nemojte joj zuriti u noge."
But, of course, that's the point. That's why I was there, I wanted to invite them to look and explore. So I made a deal with the adults that the kids could come in without any adults for two minutes on their own. The doors open, the kids descend on this table of legs, and they are poking and prodding, and they're wiggling toes, and they're trying to put their full weight on the sprinting leg to see what happens with that. And I said, "Kids, really quickly -- I woke up this morning, I decided I wanted to be able to jump over a house -- nothing too big, two or three stories -- but, if you could think of any animal, any superhero, any cartoon character, anything you can dream up right now, what kind of legs would you build me?"
Ali, naravno, to i je poanta. Zato sam i bila tamo, željela sam ih pozvati da vide i istraže. Stoga sam se dogovorila s odraslima da djeca mogu ući, bez ijednog odraslog, na dvije minute, sami. Vrata se otvaraju, djeca se spuštaju na taj stol nogu, i oni bockaju i gurkaju, i mrdaju prste, i pokušavaju se cijelom težinom osloniti na nogu za trčanje kako bi vidjeli što će se dogoditi s tim. I rekla sam, "Djeco, jako brzo -- Probudila sam se ovo jutro, i odlučila da želim moći preskočiti kuću -- ne preveliku, samo dva tri kata -- ali, ako bi se vi mogli sjetiti neke životinje, bilo kojeg superheroja, ikojeg crtanog lika, bilo čega što možete izmisliti baš sada, kakve bi ste mi noge sagradili?
And immediately a voice shouted, "Kangaroo!" "No, no, no! Should be a frog!" "No. It should be Go Go Gadget!" "No, no, no! It should be the Incredibles." And other things that I don't -- aren't familiar with. And then, one eight-year-old said, "Hey, why wouldn't you want to fly too?" And the whole room, including me, was like, "Yeah." (Laughter) And just like that, I went from being a woman that these kids would have been trained to see as "disabled" to somebody that had potential that their bodies didn't have yet. Somebody that might even be super-abled. Interesting.
I smjesta je glas zavikao, "Klokan!" "Ne, ne, ne!" Trebala bi biti žaba!" "Ne. To bi trebao biti Go Go Gadget!" "Ne, ne, ne! To bi trebali biti Izbavitelji (The Incredibles):" I rekli su i druge stvari koje ne -- s kojima nisam upoznata. I tada, je jedna osmogodišnjakinja rekla, "Hej, pa zašto ne želiš i letjeti?" I cijela soba zajedno samnom je rekla "Pa da." -- I točno tako, postala sam iz žene koju bi ta djeca naučila gledati kao nekog s invaliditetom u nekog tko ima potencijal koji njihova tijela još nemaju. Netko tko bi čak mogao imati i izvanredne sposobnosti. Zanimljivo.
So some of you actually saw me at TED, 11 years ago. And there's been a lot of talk about how life-changing this conference is for both speakers and attendees, and I am no exception. TED literally was the launch pad to the next decade of my life's exploration. At the time, the legs I presented were groundbreaking in prosthetics. I had woven carbon fiber sprinting legs modeled after the hind leg of a cheetah, which you may have seen on stage yesterday. And also these very life-like, intrinsically painted silicone legs.
Neki od vas su me zaista vidjeli na TED-u, prije jedanaest godina, i bilo je mnogo razgovora o tome kako ova konferencija mijenja život govornicima i sudionicima, i ja nisam iznimka. TED je doslovno bio odskočna daska za slijedeće desetljeće istraživanja mog života. U to vrijeme, noge koje sam predstavila bile su novost u protetici. imala sam trkače noge od tkanih karbonskih vlakana oblikovane po stražnjoj nozi gepra, koje ste možda vidjeli na pozornici jučer. Također kao i ove vrlo uvjerljive, istinski obojene silikonske noge.
So at the time, it was my opportunity to put a call out to innovators outside the traditional medical prosthetic community to come bring their talent to the science and to the art of building legs. So that we can stop compartmentalizing form, function and aesthetic, and assigning them different values. Well, lucky for me, a lot of people answered that call. And the journey started, funny enough, with a TED conference attendee -- Chee Pearlman, who hopefully is in the audience somewhere today. She was the editor then of a magazine called ID, and she gave me a cover story.
Tako da sam u to vrijeme imala moju priliku pozvati inovatore izvan tradicionalne medicinske protetičke zajednice da donesu svoj talent znanosti i umjetnosti izrađivanja nogu. Tako da možemo zaustaviti dijeljenje oblika, funkcije i estetike, i dodijeliti im druge vrijednosti. Pa, na moju sreću, mnogo se ljudi odazvalo tom pozivu. I putovanje je počelo, baš smiješno, s sudionikom TED konferencije -- Chee Pearlman, koja je nadam se danas ovdje u publici. Ona je bila urednica časopisa ID, i napisala je raportažu s naslovnice o meni.
This started an incredible journey. Curious encounters were happening to me at the time; I'd been accepting numerous invitations to speak on the design of the cheetah legs around the world. And people would come up to me after the conference, after my talk, men and women. And the conversation would go something like this, "You know Aimee, you're very attractive. You don't look disabled." (Laughter) I thought, "Well, that's amazing, because I don't feel disabled." And it really opened my eyes to this conversation that could be explored, about beauty. What does a beautiful woman have to look like? What is a sexy body? And interestingly, from an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability? I mean, people -- Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled. (Laughter)
To je započelo jedno nevjerojatno putovanje. Zanimljivi susreti su mi se događali u to vrijeme; Primala sam brojne pozivnice za govore o dizajnu nogu geparda diljem svijeta. Ljudi bi mi prilazili poslije konferencije, nakon mog govora, muškarci i žene. I razgovor bi išao otprilike ovako, "Znaš Aimee, ti si vrlo zgodna. Ne izgledaš kao osoba s invaliditetom." -- Mislila sam, "Pa to zapanjujuće, jer se ja i ne osjećam kao osoba s invaliditetom." I to mi je zaista otvorilo oči o ovom razgovoru koji bi se moga istražiti, o ljepoti. Kako treba izgledati lijepa žena? Što je to seksi tijelo? I zanimljivo, sa stajališta identiteta, što to znači imati nedostatak? Mislim, ljudi -- Pamela Anderson ima više protetike u svom tijelu od mene. Nitko nju ne zove invalidom. --
So this magazine, through the hands of graphic designer Peter Saville, went to fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and photographer Nick Knight, who were also interested in exploring that conversation. So, three months after TED I found myself on a plane to London, doing my first fashion shoot, which resulted in this cover -- "Fashion-able"? Three months after that, I did my first runway show for Alexander McQueen on a pair of hand-carved wooden legs made from solid ash. Nobody knew -- everyone thought they were wooden boots. Actually, I have them on stage with me: grapevines, magnolias -- truly stunning. Poetry matters. Poetry is what elevates the banal and neglected object to a realm of art. It can transform the thing that might have made people fearful into something that invites them to look, and look a little longer, and maybe even understand.
Tako da je taj časopis, u rukama grafičkog dizajnera Petera Saville, surađivao s modnim dizajnerom Alexanderom McQueenom i fotografom Nickom Knightom, koju su također bili zainteresirani istraživati ovaj razgovor. I tako, tri mjeseca nakon TED-a bila sam na avionu za London i moje prvo modno snimanje, a posljedica njega je ova naslovnica. Modno-sposobna? Tri mjeseca poslije toga, prvi put sam prošetala modnom pistom za Alexandera McQueena na paru ručno rezbarenih drvenih nogu od čvrstog jasena. Nitko nije znao -- svi su mislili da su to drvene čizme. Zapravo, imam ih sad na pozornici samnom: Vinova loza, magnolije, uistinu zadivljujuće. Poezija je važna. Poezija je ono što uzdiže banalan i zanemaren objekt u carstvo umjetnosti. Može pretvoriti nešto što je izazivalo ljudima strah u nešto što ih poziva da gledaju, i gledaju još malo dulje, i onda možda čak shvate.
I learned this firsthand with my next adventure. The artist Matthew Barney, in his film opus called the "The Cremaster Cycle." This is where it really hit home for me -- that my legs could be wearable sculpture. And even at this point, I started to move away from the need to replicate human-ness as the only aesthetic ideal. So we made what people lovingly referred to as glass legs even though they're actually optically clear polyurethane, a.k.a. bowling ball material. Heavy! Then we made these legs that are cast in soil with a potato root system growing in them, and beetroots out the top, and a very lovely brass toe. That's a good close-up of that one. Then another character was a half-woman, half-cheetah -- a little homage to my life as an athlete. 14 hours of prosthetic make-up to get into a creature that had articulated paws, claws and a tail that whipped around, like a gecko. (Laughter) And then another pair of legs we collaborated on were these -- look like jellyfish legs, also polyurethane. And the only purpose that these legs can serve, outside the context of the film, is to provoke the senses and ignite the imagination. So whimsy matters.
Naučila sam ovo iz prve ruke na mojoj slijedećoj pustolovini. Umjetnik Matthew Barney, u svom filmskom djelu ciklus "Kremaster" Tada sam zaista shvatila -- da moje noge mogu biti nosiva skluptura. i u tom trenutku, sam čak počela odmicati od potrebe da oponašam ljudskost kao jedini estetski ideal. Tako da smo napravili ono što ljudi iz ljubavi nazivaju staklene noge iako su zapravo napravljene od prozirnog poliuretana, tj. materijala od kojeg se rade kugle za kuglanje. Težak! Onda smo napravili ove noge koje su odlivene od tla s korijenom krompira koji raste u njima i ciklom koja izlazi na vhu, i jednim ljupkim mjedenim palcem. Ovdje je dobra uvećana slika toga. I onda još jedan lik koji je bio pola žena, pola gepard -- malo odavanje počasti mom životu kao sportašice. 14 sati protetičke šminke kako bi postala biće koje ima zglobne šape, kanđe i rep koji je lupao okolo, kao macaklin. -- I onda još jedan par nogu na kojima smo surađivali su bile ove... koje izgledaju kao krakovi meduze. Također poliuretan. I jedina svrha koju ove noge imaju, izvan konteksta filma, je da izazaivaju čula i zapaljuju maštu. Tako da je hir važan.
Today, I have over a dozen pair of prosthetic legs that various people have made for me, and with them I have different negotiations of the terrain under my feet, and I can change my height -- I have a variable of five different heights. (Laughter) Today, I'm 6'1". And I had these legs made a little over a year ago at Dorset Orthopedic in England and when I brought them home to Manhattan, my first night out on the town, I went to a very fancy party. And a girl was there who has known me for years at my normal 5'8". Her mouth dropped open when she saw me, and she went, "But you're so tall!" And I said, "I know. Isn't it fun?" I mean, it's a little bit like wearing stilts on stilts, but I have an entirely new relationship to door jams that I never expected I would ever have. And I was having fun with it. And she looked at me, and she said, "But, Aimee, that's not fair." (Laughter) (Applause) And the incredible thing was she really meant it. It's not fair that you can change your height, as you want it.
Danas, imam više od dvanaest pari umjetnih nogu koje su razni ljudi napravili za mene, i s njima drugačije savladavam tlo pod nogama. I mogu mijenjati visinu -- Imam pet različitih visina. -- Danas sam visoka 6'1" inča (185.42 cm). I ove noge su mi napravili prije malo više od godine u Dorset Orthopaedic u Engleskoj i onda sam ih donijela sobom na Manhattan, i moje prve večeri vani u gradu, otišla sam na vrlo elegantnu zabavu. I tamo je bila djevojka koja me poznavala godinama s mojom normalnom visinom 5'8" (172.72 cm). Njena usta su se širom otvorila kad me ugledala, i rekla je, "Ali ti si tako visoka!" I ja sam odgovorila, "Znam. Zar to nije zabavno?" Mislim, to je malo slično kao nošenje štula na štulama, ali sad imam sasvim novi odnos s okvirima vrata koji nikad nisam očekivala da ću imati. I to me zabavljalo. I ona me pogledala, i rekla, "Ali, Aimee, to nije pošteno." -- -- I nevjerojatna stvar je bila što je to zaista mislila. Nije pošteno da možeš mijenjati visinu, kako želiš.
And that's when I knew -- that's when I knew that the conversation with society has changed profoundly in this last decade. It is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiency. It's a conversation about augmentation. It's a conversation about potential. A prosthetic limb doesn't represent the need to replace loss anymore. It can stand as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is that they want to create in that space. So people that society once considered to be disabled can now become the architects of their own identities and indeed continue to change those identities by designing their bodies from a place of empowerment. And what is exciting to me so much right now is that by combining cutting-edge technology -- robotics, bionics -- with the age-old poetry, we are moving closer to understanding our collective humanity. I think that if we want to discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and those glorious disabilities that we all have. I think of Shakespeare's Shylock: "If you prick us, do we not bleed, and if you tickle us, do we not laugh?" It is our humanity, and all the potential within it, that makes us beautiful. Thank you. (Applause)
I tada sam znala -- Tada sam znala da se razgovor s društvom duboko promijenio u prošlom desetljeću. To više nije razgovor o prevladavanju nedostatka. To je razgovor o povećanju. To je razgovor o potencijalu. Proteza više ne predstavlja potrebu da zamijeni gubitak. Može biti simbol da nositelj ima moć stvoriti bilo što što zaželi na tom mjestu. Pa ljudi koje je društvo nekoć smatralo hendikepiranima mogu danas biti arhitekti svog vlastitog identiteta i doista nastaviti mijenjati te identitete dizajniranjem svog tijela u svrhu osnaživanja. I što je meni toliko uzbudljivo sada je to da se sjedinjenjem najsuvremenije tehnologije -- robotike, bioelektronike -- s prastarom poezijom, se približavamo bliže razumijevanju našeg cjelokupnog čovječanstva. Mislim da ako želimo otkriti puni potencijal našeg čovječanstva, moramo slaviti te dirljive odlike i te dične nedostatke koje mi svi imamo. Mislim o Shakespearovom Shylocku: "Ako nas ubodete, zar ne krvarimo? i ako nas golicate, zar se ne smijemo?" Naša humanost, i mogućnosti unutar nje, su ono što nas čini lijepima. Hvala vam. --